Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Junior forward K.J. Sherrill has been released from the Charlotte 49ers’ men’s basketball program and will transfer, the school confirmed today.

Sherrill, a 6-7 power forward, is the second player within the last two weeks to leave the program. Junior guard Jamar Briscoe was released from the program in March.

Sherrill, who started three games last season, would have competed with two incoming freshmen – Willie Clayton and Darion Clark – for playing time next season.

"I’ve enjoyed playing at Charlotte, but it’s in my best interest to move on," Sherrill said in a statement. "I look forward to finding a better fit for myself."

Sherrill’s father Keith Sherrill told The Observer last week that Sherrill was looking forward to playing his senior season at Charlotte. 49ers coach Alan Major also told The Observer last Thursday that he expected Sherrill to play for Charlotte next season.

Sherrill averaged 2.8 points and 1.4 rebounds last season and missed the last four games of the season with a broken arm. Sherrill also missed 10 games with a knee injury his sophomore season.

Briscoe and Sherrill were recruited to Charlotte by former 49ers coach Bobby Lutz.

UNCC has one MAJOR problem (no pun intended - although he is the second) plaguing every sports team on campus. Conference affiliation. No one (outside of the students) cares about Saint Joseph's, U Mass, St. Bonaventure, Duquesne, Rhode Island or St. Louis. And based on attendance and alumni support (or the lack thereof) student concern is questionable at best. No natural rivals, closest competitor 6 hours away and local talent could care less about playing in the A-10.

UNCC, more importantly Judy Rose, need to quit pretending they are a major university / Division 1 powerhouse and beg and plead the SOUTHERN Conference for admission and membership. Closest competitor ... 25 minutes. Local talent not good enough for the ACC is not going to get excited about playing small schools from Philly, NY and PA.

Change conferences, fire Rose, hire Mullins as the A.D, fire Major and start a tradition. Charlotte natives would support contests involving local schools. But for now, are sick and tired of the continued whining from students and pretending to be a big boy school from the administration. Come on UNCC - act like you've been there before and give a damn!

I was a season ticket holder this year and couldn't help but notice how badly coached this team was. As has been mentioned this team did not get any better as the year went by. Not to mention the steady stream of players they seem to keep losing. Time for a new coach if you ask me.

Lutz's first three years at Phiefer 7-19, 7-17, 13-13.Dean Smith at UNC-CH, Coach K at Duke, and Crean at Indiana all had losing seasons there first few years.All are some of the best and most respected coaches anywhere! I am sure Majors will be listed among them someday too!

Wow people, chill out. Fire a coach after two seasons is illogical. All that will do is create even more chaos for the program and nobody will ever want to play here.

I remember when Mike Davis took over for Bobby Knight and he took that team to the NC in 2002. Everyone wanted him to be coach forever and thought he was the solution. What happens after that? Mediocre seasons and he's out.

Major inherited very average players. Deuce would be a good Division 2 player but to start for a D1 team? Questionable. Sherrill realized he would be getting replaced by better players.

At the end of Lutz's last year, you really saw what Major was inheriting. A team that was combusting into wildfire and Major had no time to recruit based on how late he was hired/Lutz had no one coming in.

All Major had to work with his first year was a bunch of ballhogs and guys who just wanted to chuck the 3 (And not play defense either). Major doesn't want to live and die by the 3 because those coaches don't last.

Good fans support through the bad. Fair weather fans support through the good. If you don't like Major, then don't show up to games and stop reading articles about Charlotte and quit being negative all the time.

No way we should give hime 4 years. He is already only one losing season away from being tied for the most consecutive losing seasons in Niner history (3, and it has only happened once before).

If Major does not take us to post season next year, I will not renew my season tickets or 49er Club Membership. The excuse that he has top have his own players is just that. An excuse. Gottfied did quite well at State. Lutz did very well at Charlotte with Mullins' and Melvin's players.

To the trolls and fake fans (that's all of you that are screaming for a new coach now or you will stop donating and buying season tickets):

Would you rather be Towson, where if you win ONE game, it is headline news? The problem is that we got spoiled by Mullins/Watkins/first 5 years of Lutz. Don't forget that Lutz didn't take us to the NCAA his last 5 years, and one of those was a 20-loss season. His last season, we were 18-5, then completely collapsed once we got into the meat of the A-10 schedule, including the infamous UMass game where he sent 6 guys onto the court after a timeout. So Major comes in and sees he's got a bunch of guys who are head cases, ball hogs, and who all think they would win the NBA 3-point contest. He demands they play defense, and they didn't know how - plus, none of them could shoot.

The comparisons to Godfried are apples to oranges. State had a talented roster and a rotten coach. We had Lutz, who is a good coach, and a roster that had very little talent. So the Lutz recruits begin leaving the program in droves. I have no problem with this. It's not just me being a homer (which I am, and am not ashamed of it), but every coach of a non-BCS school should be given 4 years to build his own program. It takes that long to have a complete, 13-man roster that are all his recruits. I will give you that Major is running off the last coach's guys so fast that you can make the call after the third year.

I agree we are in the wrong conference - but I think we should be in the Colonial Athletic Association in all sports. The A-10 is a good men's hoops conference, but it is the worst conference on Earth in just about every other sport. Note that other than men's hoops, we have dominated the A-10; we have won more than 30 conference titles in other sports. The baseball team has to win 50 games AND the conference tournament to get to the NCAA because the A-10 is so bad.

And yes, I will continue to defend Judy Rose because she has a very good track record of coaching hires - including men's hoops. You may not recall, but she got the AD job in the '90s when schools across the country were forcing their most famous coach to give up the AD job and just be a coach. We did that here, forcing Mullins to give up the AD job and Rose was hired. She hired Watkins and Lutz, as well as Loren Hibbs and Jeremy Gunn and the last 3 golf coaches who bolted as soon as they got the team in the top 25. Although we haven't played any games yet, I'm confident she hired the right football coach as well. Her only glaring error was getting us in the A-10. I'll pass judgment on Major after his 3rd season, and on Rose if Major, Lambert and the new soccer coach flop.

As for Sherrill, why be up in arms? What did he contribute the last two years? That's right, nothing.

Leaving in droves?? Most major college programs have attrition every year. NCSU recruit Ryan Harrow will be starting at Kentucky next year. Wears and Drew from UNC to UCLA. UNCW and Buzz lose 3 in one swoop. And the comment that no frosh impressed you this year -- how about Henry? How was Mayfield? how much has Braswell improved?

I watched 15 of the 49ers games this year. Even away games. Went to the conference tournament Where Judy, Major, & Charlotte were the butt end of a lot of jokes.

I love college basketball traveled to New York and watched Kentucky and Kansas play and watched K break the record. Went NYC last year and watched UCONN get spanked by St. John and then turn the season around to win it all.

As much as I love the sport & school I can no longer support the 49ers until change takes place. I have concluded that to support them would be akin to enableing a person to stay on crack. I know that is a sick analogy, but this is a sick program!

Players were not allowed to transfer until after Majors first year. Its in there contract with the school. Now Majors gets rid of his senior leaders for an excuse to suck next year! No one wants to transfer with only one year left to play somewhere else or go Div II!! Thats just rotten to the core! And Majors didnt know Sherrill was transfering last week because Oliver is the one who manages the team and kicked him off!

Anyone saying the loss of KJ won't hurt doesn't know much about college basketball or does not really follow the Niners. The entire coaching staff should be the ones looking for a new team if they were behind any of this. I can already hear next year's excuse that the Niners had a bad year because they lacked depth on the front line.

We need to give hime one more year. If we have a losing season or even slightly better than .500 season next year I say can him then. We need to hang on to him if we get an NCAA Invitation next year. Anything in between is negotiable including a NIT bid.

^^^^^^^I'm going to take a giant leap of faith and assume your post is true and that you are sincere.So you gave money to the program and now you are pissed by one coaches "behind the scenes" running off of players? Do you always believe rumors? If you are really a contributor, you have probably had the opportunity to meet and talk with Coach Major. Did he strike you as the vile man you assume him to be or did you just believe the things you hear? You do know there are other sports being played at Charlotte, I assume. Do you know that your withholding of contributions hurts, in whatever small way, the coaches and the players (whom you profess to care about) of ALL sports. Can you not see that punishing lack of loyalty by your own lack of loyalty is hypocritical?

I can say that my own contributions are less than the $15,000+ given by the poster above. But I've donated a few thousand to the program myself and I'm not donating this year, either.

I became a fan and fell in love with the program when I saw the support given to Charles Hayward. I loved how he remained a full member of the team during his illness, I loved how a seat with his name was carried to each game. I loved how he remained on scholarship even after he lost all his weight and I loved it when he came back. I loved how the fans helped raise money for his family a house after his passing.

And I fell out of love with the program when the atmosphere completely changed. If a player fell ill today, he would be immediately forgotten and speculation over who would get his scholarship would be instantaneous. You rarely hear 'fans' support the team. Most just slam Lutz's integrity, slam the players, stalk high school recruits, and engage in petty, negative grudges with each other

Fans who love and support the school find so much static from the school if they want to try to tailgate, or sell t-shirts, or take photos. Our leaders are polarizing idiots. Call me hypocritical all you want but I can't support this mess, either.

To: 10:34To: 11:25-------------I see both points. I am a long-time contributor and season ticket holder. “Inside undoing” is 10:34's opinion. And, it is not right of you, 11:25, to tell either of us what we should do or could do with our donation. I am not happy with what has gone on with men’s basketball since Major was hired.

I give money and have done so for over 20 years because basketball lured me. Football excites me and I would give more to support it if I thought basketball was pulling its weight. No matter, if I pull my money, I would choose to and ask for it to be used for football.

I find Brad Lambert to be an honorable man and have not had the same feeling with Alan. I don't think Alan is a bad person. I think he is a weak person who has not displayed leadership qualities with his ever-juggling roster. It’s only 13 kids. You have 4 coaches. Do the math. Make it work.

Survivor: I have given much more than $15k over a period of 30+ years and I'm not stopping now. I agree that the administration at Charlotte could be WAY more fan friendly. However, I'm there to support the student-athletes. We have our share of knuckle headed young people, but the vast majority you'd be proud to call your own. I'm not going to presume to tell anyone else how and where to spend his money, but each person has to examine his own motives for doing whatever he does.

You would be wasting your time trying to convince me to continue to support this program.

I have given many thousands of dollars to the school, but a few days ago I informed my wife (the financial manager of our home) to not send another check this year, because I couldn't stand looking in the mirror when I shaved if I supported the shenanigans going on at the school.

8 freshmen are coming in because the coach ran off all the more experienced upper classmen. Why? Ws it to use the excuse we are too young to win? This will be the third consecutive year we can use that excuse. I'm not buying it.

anon 10:49Good job of assuming Major's motives and then dismissing them as bogus. A parody of your post might read like this: I see you are posting again. Why? Is it because you think you are genius and we will be enlightened by your opinion? I'm not buying it.